“She wished she wasalready here,you say?” Dr. Dvita blew more smoke rings that drifted toward Will.
“I suppose,” Will said. He didn’t like the way the smoke rings hung in the air. He waved them away.
“Don’t you think you should open the letter, Zani?” Minerva nodded toward the missive with a knowing look. She barely suppressed her grin.
“You know what it’s about, then?” Zani looked worried. She glanced toward the case on the floor.
“Of course I know, dear.” Minerva smirked. “Amrita Berman wrote to me personally to ask me what I thought should be done.”
“There’s no question,” Zani rose and paced. “I need to head right back out into the field and find that stone, wherever it is. I promise, nobody wants it recovered more than me.”
“Wait, you don’t have the bloodstone?” Maida asked, gaping. “I thought you said you were successful on that mission.”
“I was.” Zani nodded. “I got it. I had it. And then…”
“And then?” Minerva raised an eyebrow. Now she, too, was staring at the case.
Zani retrieved her chest and hauled it onto the coffee table at the center of the room. She produced her wand from her pocket and used it to undo the wards and locks. Then she opened it.
Will swung his feet to the floor and leaned forward, along with everyone else, craning his neck to get a look inside the travel case. This had to be the setback that Zani spoke of at the airport. The locked case appeared to be empty.
“One minute I had it. And then it vanished. It justdisappearedfrom within this locked case.”
“Oh charmfizzle!” Minerva gasped, hand over mouth. “I can just imagine how you must have felt.”
“It’s actually empty, right? There’s not an invisible artifact in there?” Rosie asked tentatively.
Dr. Dvita stopped blowing smoke rings and set his pipe down in a pipe holder. Zephyr stepped forward to examine the case, poking it with his wand. Next, he waved it over the case, lighting up the interior with a silvery green mist. Above the indentation at the center, presumably where the bloodstone amulet had rested, the mist glowed a brilliant blue.
“It’s empty for sure. There’s nothing in here save a smidge of magical residue,” Zephyr confirmed. He shook his head, baffled. “The locks and wards are all intact.” He lifted the case to feel its heft. “And it’s a lead case, if I’m not mistaken?”
“It is,” Zani confirmed.
“Do you have any idea who it was? Or how they did it?” Minerva frowned. “Have you told anyone? Does Minodaura know?”
“I hadn’t even told her yet that I was going after it,” Zani confessed. “Thank goodness. I don’t think she would have approved of the mission if she knew. Nobody knew I had it. Nobody except Maida and you, Minerva.” Zani hesitated. She bit her lip.
“And someone else.” Minerva’s tone was unusually sharp. “Presumably you worked withsomeoneto locate the stone? Someone on the inside?” The elderly lady had been collecting arcane items for almost a century. She was the original relic hunter. Minerva, Will realized, missed nothing.
“Yes,” Zani admitted with a frustrated sigh. “There was someone. I just don’t think he’d betray me like that.” Her mouth formed a tight line. “Even if I believed he was capable of that, I don’t know how he could have pulled it off. Particularly at that time of day, on a train, in broad daylight…” her voice trailed off.
There was someone.
Will felt his heart being squeezed as Zani spoke those words. Someone she didn’t think wouldbetrayher. He didn’t care for the way she’d said that. Even her word choice revealed her emotions. Whatever this relationship was, she believed it to be meaningful enough to extract loyalty. It was something more than casual. And then there was that last part. It didn’t sit right with him. He had to ask.
“What did the time of day have to do with it?”
Zani closed her eyes. “My partner isn’t usually out and about at that hour. He wasn’t on the train with me.”
“Your partner?” She had apartner?Will set down the rest of the jam sandwich, no longer wanting to eat it. “Why wouldn’t your partner have been out and about at that time of day?” Will spoke quietly, pretending he didn’t already know the answer. Hoping that he was mistaken. Knowing that this was unlikely.
Say it,he thought.
“Because he’s a vampire.” Zani sighed briefly before more words tumbled out of her pretty mouth. Disappointing words. “But he’s not like all the other vampires. I swear. Cosimo is different.”
“Oh, Zani. What were you thinking?” Minerva looked terribly disappointed, but Zani wouldn’t have seen that because her eyes were still closed. There was no mistaking the disapproval in the older witch’s tone of voice, however.
Will watched as Maida stepped closer to her friend and placed a protective arm around her. Maida tipped her chin up at her elderly aunt Minerva, prepared to challenge her. Will could understand why Maida was being so defensive. As someone of mixed magical descent, who’d only recently been accepted into the magical community, Maida was naturally prickly about any group being singled out. Even vampires.
